Another Lame Duck Premier About To Depart

Yes, it is just a mere formality before Nathan Rees ceases to be Premier of NSW and a new marionette show orchestrated from the right-wing faction of the ALP begins. The choice of a woman - Kristina Keneally or Carmel Tebbutt - will be a change of puppet for sure. But the lads in Sussex Street miss the point: we are not fooled by the attempt to imitate Queensland with Anna Bligh.

As the Upper House relationship between the ALP and the Shooters Party remains at a stalemate the prospect of a hung Parliament needing to be dissolved for an election looms large.

The members of Cabinet should be asking themselves how did they end up in this mess. All they have to do is think back to the absurd lobbying of Laurie Glanfield and John Hatzistergos over the merger of the Protective Commissioner and Public Trustee in June. They secured the passage for that via wooing The Greens in exchange for stuffing up The Shooter's bill on bang-bangs in National Parks. If Glanfield and Hatzistergos had not been so adamant about pushing through on that issue then maybe Labor would still have The Shooters onside. Now they don't and it is impossible to govern the state without at least 3 secure votes from minor parties.

Poly-Filler Pasting Over NSW Govt Cracks

The pounding hooves of the horses of doom are approaching as Premier Rees is shown yet again to be a marionette. He faces:

1). The plots of John Della Bosca eyeing off the purple mantle of the Premier's job, and of course there are the usual media denials from Della Bosca (which is the script challengers recite when planning the Ides of March).

2). The stalemate over regaining the support of The Shooters Party in the Legislative Council which was caused by the determined and stubborn lobbying activities of the NSW Attorney General John Hatzistergos and Mr Laurie Glanfield the Director General of the Attorney General's Department in June 2009 in pushing through - come hell or highwater - the NSW Trustee and Guardian Bill. The Government did a deal with The Greens on that Bill, and in return Labor dudded The Shooters Party's bill about shooting in national parks. This has led to stalemate over the sale of NSW Lotteries (so essential so the Treasurer Eric Roozendaal claims to making the budget work).

3). The revolt of 8 Labor MPs over the privatisation of prisons.

4). The rearranging of deck chairs to dampen down dissent from Rural Fire Services over the Super Department scheme.

Full steam ahead as we hit the iceberg!

Daily Telegraph on Case Chaos at New Trustee and Guardian

Gemma Jones serves up a concise piece on funds mismanagement and clumsy ham-fisted handling of protected estates clients by the Protective Commisisoner's successor the NSW Trustee and Guardian. While that kind of work is always fraught with problems, the snap shot in the article just emphasises what a mess is the entire Attorney General's Department. Both the minister Mr John Hatzistergos and the department's Director General Mr Laurie Glanfield need to be hauled before an inquiry to justify why they should be allowed to continue in their jobs.

And don't overlook the farcical handling of the current Parliamentary Inquiry into substitute decision making as it affects the NSW Trustee and Guardian (see here). Both the Minister and Director General should be cross-examined on several critical concerns particularly why they dragged their feet since 2004 in introducing any reforms to the Protected Estates Act.